//------------------------------// // 152. Overcast. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, Duckberg Park, Hollow- Useless, the minions I had summoned to follow my orders were entirely useless! I could deal with this myself, the one who could have dealt with me was mostly neutralized by them so at least they proved that they were of some use. Though it had taken six of them to even weaken the weakest member of the ones who had stopped me previously, it was absolutely pathetic that the glory of darkness even had such pitiful examples of its might. There is nothing the ones before me could do, but I had to make sure they all perished. I could not let the light group up against me again and I would not leave any resistance. It was building to that point once again, I could feel it coming already. I couldn’t let them flee, I couldn’t let them retreat and they had to die soon or else they would find some way, some ridiculously miniscule chance, of stopping me. That they will make it work somehow in spite of my might is infuriating. Smashing the mutt with a hoof, I sent her flying. Unfortunately, she would live. I hate the light! -Shadow Pom- Sitting here, just sitting here in pain watching the fighting. The other her clearly stated a rejection of them and their group being far removed from what she knew of their given appearances. It was certainly understandable that she had what amounted to the facsimile of a broken leg, the other wanted to live and injured her until she couldn’t continue the fight. What the other had said changed some perspective of things drastically, especially since the other stopped short of killing the shadow longma and didn’t carry through on the last attack. Her other even seemed regretful to hurt the shadow longma, yet our shadow longma companion seemed to smile and was happily accepting to have been taken down by my other? Did she want to be her own being? She never really had the thought until her other put it into her head. She had only existed for the purpose of defeating a major problem for the one that brought them all about, they were meant to serve a rather simple purpose and they were given a jumbled amount of information on how to go about serving that purpose. The problem was that they could no longer serve said purpose, thus they were effectively useless. Turning to the shadow alpaca tending to numerous cuts covering shadow longma tenderly, expending her own mass to close up the excessive seeping wounds. Did she know that she would not be getting anything in return, did she know that she would not be able to get that mass back once it became another’s? The shadow alpaca didn’t seem to mind the loss of her size the more she gave of herself. That was something completely unnatural, why would the shadow alpaca bother with healing us? Why should the shadow longma continue to function? Why should any of us? What was she doing by giving up pieces of herself to us other than making herself smaller? It was her main form of attack to shift her mass even and she was giving up her ability to fight. We were all failures together to be as strong as even just one of the ones they were appearing to functionally act as, even I or my brood couldn’t match the strange ferocity or acrobatics of my other. Where was their purpose now that the devouring darkness bringer no longer thought them useful? The answer came from a being in basking in a powerful light that they created personally. The thing was… they were recognizable as a shadow too despite enveloping themselves in a warm colorful light. How did a shadow create its own light? What was that shadows purpose? Did it even follow that purpose anymore? Why could it generate its own light and didn’t need to devour it? … Why was the light so inviting? -Lena- I wanted to aid in the fight, however something drew my attention from the fight going on as I arrived. Gizmo Duck, Gizmo Gal, Leap Lamb and Caper Canine were getting beaten into the ground by an unstoppable creature that definitely had far more power than Magica. That’s back when Magica was turning everyone’s shadows against them and opening a portal to the local realm of shadows. That thing looked like a nasty cross between a vampire and a pony, the blood red eyes really helped sell it. What I more focused on were, what I would loosely term as, people like me. Living shadows and they were collectively sitting under a tree quietly as the shadow alpaca tended to them. They all turned to look at me with their bright blood red eyes taking notice of me as I approached, I just carefully lowered to the ground and approached them slowly. They felt… a lot like me actually. They probably were just as lost as I was when I was first born from the shadows. Their stares were a creepy, but they didn’t seem too aggressive. So I took a breath and decided to greet them, maybe even ask them for help. -Rooftop, Smolder- “Please, stop crying Ocellus.” My best friend was still a whimpering mess, so I decided to get sarcastic. “You do realize that Changelings need water to live right? Are you attempting to make a river in the middle of the city? I think you’re making an impressive attempt of it.” “Nice impression of Gallus, I thought I was supposed to be the one that does impressions.” Ocellus giggled a bit and I hugged her close as she rubbed at her eyes with a hoof. “That’s more like it.” Dormarch stated with good cheer. “I appreciate the good vibes you two give off.” I would have said something, but I was distracted by something going on down in the streets. Looks like Violet was running into trouble. “Ocellus, do you think you can stay here with Dormarch by yourself?” I had a hummingbird to help, but I wasn’t about to leave Ocellus in this state. She held Dormarch protectively to her chest and nodded. “Okay, stay put, I have to go help Violet!” I flew from the rooftop and angled downwards for the Eggshell helmet guys, preparing to breathe some flames. -Dormarch- “So… want to play a game?” I asked and Ocellus curled up while holding me. “Sure Dormarch, just don’t ask me to get closer to that mass of malice.” Ocellus mumbled as I heard shouts from the streets and flashes of fire. “I wouldn’t ask you to do something harmful to you, even if I don’t entirely understand why it is harmful to you in particular.” I think Smolder was the coolest dragon ever, not that I knew any other dragons. “I don’t think Smolder would ask you too either.” -Pom- Dolly went sailing over my head being trailed by her skateboard, she managed to catch herself in the air by performing back flip in a shower of sparkles to slow down into hovering for a few seconds before dropping to the ground softly on her butt. Gizmo Gal charged Hollow and managed to strike him twice with her lightning pole. At best this was just stunning Hollow, but anything that could even feasibly slow him down even a little was worth the effort. I was in no condition to be fighting, I shouldn’t even be standing as it is and if I was going to do another attack, then it would be with my left hind hoof. Slowly making my way over to Dolly, I checked her over slightly as she was rubbed her right paw against her nose. Gizmo Gal’s weapon was broken and she was knocked down with two bleeding cuts through her thinner armor across her chest and stomach. Thankfully Gizmo Duck was already ready to get back into the action. His armored right fist extended and knocked Hollow off of Gizmo Gal, before he could do anymore damage, as he rolled forward on his wheel. “I really don’t know how long I can actually keep this up, but…” Gizmo Ducks started, as both his main hands caught Hollow’s wings, a panel on the armor opened up and a custard pie slammed forward on a smaller mechanical hand right into Hollow’s face before he dented the armor even more. “At least I still have some tricks left in my armor, even if that was my last pie!” As much armor as he’ll have left after Hollow is through with him, Gizmo Duck was doing the most distracting out of us and Gizmo Gal took opportunities given to her by him to stun or lockdown Hollow temporarily. The two of them knew how to work together and were keeping Dolly from having to throw herself into the path of danger and pain, at least she seemed tougher thanks to whatever her magic does for her. It seems to allow Dolly to control her motion and the momentum of anything else she touches instinctively, would have to test it later under less trying circumstances. “You okay there Pom?” Dolly looked up to me with a bruising bloody muzzle, I sat down and just sighed audibly while groaning in pain. “That bad? I mean, I can even feel how horrible off you are. Just get some rest Pom.” “I… barely have it in me… to attack anymore.” As tired as I was, we needed to continue stalling or figure out how to defeat Hollow here. “I can’t rest until I know this world, your world, isn’t going to be destroyed.” “Yeah, nothing we can do to this guy will stop him. I’ve caused some injuries that are healing slower, but I’m not exactly great at using my magic yet. I’ll want to figure it out with your help if I survive through this morning.” At least Dolly learned how to charge her skateboard with sparkles that seemed to be her personal brand of magic at work. “As you said, normal attacks aren’t working and he’s just healing from everything we’ve hit him with.” “Pom, we’re here to help!” Hearing Smolder, I turned away from watching a portion of Gizmo Ducks armor from around his waist get shredded by Hollow. She was gliding in with her claws grasping Violet’s wrists and Violet herself was holding onto Smolders. “Give me a few minutes to set things up.” Violet said calmly as she released her grip on Smolder and dropped to the ground to run up to us while pulling several things from her backpack. “Where’s Lena? I’m going to need her help in dealing with this otherworldly threat. As you said, he appears to be something of demonic shadow monster in nature as these smudge sticks have just proven. He is a highly powerful entity that has recently broken into our world.” The bundle of sticks the hummingbird pulled out and held forward were slowly turning a shade of dark purple that had the hummingbird frowning. I idly watched as Smolder blasted Hollow in the face with a fireball, knocking him back and off of a bedraggled Gizmo Duck. Smolder should be mostly fine. “So we actually have a plan?” I actually managed to ask through gasping breaths. “Yes, do you know the name of the monster in question?” Violet asked as she started flicking through a book ‘Primarily Primitive Solutions to Puzzling Paranormal Problems’ and looking through walls of text. Judging by all the small text, I’d hate to see what was the less primitive solution to our current problem was. “I’ve met him before personally when he was still mostly flesh and blood. He’s originally from the world of Equus like my friends and me, his name is or was Hollow Heart according to my friend Velvet.” I just had to breathe and keep talking. Now that I took a seat on the grass… I don’t think I could actually stand up again. At least I’m not going to be in traction for a month like with shock-ram if I survived. “If it helps, he was a thestral or bat pony and used to be a cultist that intended for our world to be devoured by shadow monsters. He failed after me and my friends basically punted him into the realm of shadows in our world before sealing it off with some magical keys, he’s been trying to kill me all morning and he’s coming quite close to succeeding. Might even succeed even if he doesn’t hit me again.” I did not want to have a heart attack right now, but I’m leaning towards it and my arrhythmia problem isn’t helping that one bit. “Well that greatly simplifies a number of things in several ways, I’m going to need Lena’s help to get him through the portal though. This may cause some, ‘minor’, dimensional stability problems… though given the current terrible status of the dimensional stability of our world over the last few years already after the time-nado, local shadow realm issues and the various scientific experiments into opening holes into alternate realities, not to mention the yearly Valhalla thing with stopping Ragnarok and the McDuck family, we may have problems closing the portal once it is opened.” The hummingbird muttered as she flicked through several pages and took up several candles in glass jars. Violet placed six of them in a circle, then she place a crystal orb in the center of them and continued to flick through the pages of her book with her eye going over each page with agonizingly precise scrutiny. “It’ll be a one-way portal, so it won’t be too much of an issue and won’t cause any more problems than what is already occurring, I will need to adjust to prevent anything major from the crossing dimensional boundaries back into our world while we get rid of the previous problem that is already here. This will cause problems later when we get into direct contact with Abigail Callaghan to find a way to send you home or bring our friend’s grandfather back, but when needs must we all make sacrifices.” “I’m okay with sacrificing a good chance to return home, if it means saving an entire world.” Despite how horrible I’d feel afterwards, I actually sincerely meant that. As Violet nodded to me with frown and a sign of respect clear in her eyes, she began setting up whatever it was she needed to do. Dolly sat next to me and covered her ears while closing her eyes, I did so as well given I heard Gizmo Gal shout for everyone to do so. Soon Gizmo Gal joined us soon after using up her last flash bang. “Well he took everything I have, my bolos, my staff and even my electric cage traps only held him for ten seconds combined. The best I have left is being able to shock him by making physical contact, but I’m not about to physically grapple with that thing!” Gizmo Gal grumbled as Smolder came sliding back to us with a black eye. “Everything else I have is utility or what’s left in the medical kit, I really need to make some room in my armor for more stuff… also realize that I may be bleeding out a bit. Is this what being lightheaded feels like?” Okay, Hollow might be getting stronger given he even hit Smolder hard enough to actually bruise her scales. Something you don’t see too often on Dragons because of how tough they naturally are, I never actually had to worry about Smolder physically until now. “Did someone finally get the number of that donkey kart?” Dizzily stated Smolder as she sat up. “No donkey karts here I’m afraid.” Looking back to Violet, she had poured out a curved line of salt between each candle to create a circle. “Give me another minute or two, this is a very precise method of sending the shadow demon packing to where he belongs. Hopefully the results of this will keep him there, as I do not condone demons going after more than one dimension. Hopefully my sister will get here soon, as I can’t do this without her.” “I would like to say that things are not going so well here, so please hurry!” Gizmo Duck likely just spoke in his actual voice instead of his more heroic sounding one because of how hard he was being pushed back by Hollow. He was staying in better than the rest of us could have at least. “I could also use a little help here.” What Gizmo Duck lacked in close up martial prowess he made up in armor and ranged offensive abilities, that and he was likely running out of spare mechanical arms at the rate they were being destroyed. “Then help you’ll get!” A bright beam of magic slammed into Hollow pushing him away from almost tearing Gizmo Dark out of his armor. The magical duck, Lena, then flew forward and blasted Hollow again. “Fall back Gizmo Duck, I’ve got this.” “Right!” Gizmo Duck teetered left and right as he came back over to us, his armor taking the worst of the damage though I noted drops of blood leaking slightly from some of the torn chunks of metal. “Don’t worry, this armor isn’t that hard to repair thanks in part to it being fairly modular. Although the duck underneath it could use some more padding...” “We’ll work on it together later hero boy.” The cheerful lilt and smile on Gizmo Gal’s beak was almost infectious. I felt something touch my shoulder and I looked to see Shadow Paprika with Shadow Pom draped across her back. “Whoa, they snuck up on us!” Dolly seemed to be ready to fight, I just calmly put my left hoof on her back. I was going to need Dormarch to give me a full run down of my injuries after this to make sure my right leg wasn’t permanently paralyzed. “It’s okay Dolly, I don’t think they mean us harm.” Sending my gaze behind the now much smaller shadow alpaca, I could see Shadow Arizona carrying shadow Oleander. Behind those two was a frail looking Shadow Velvet carrying an equally frail Shadow Tianhuo, both looked to have been slightly patched up. Right, I’ll try to keep my words pleasant. “Um… what do you want?” Shadow Pom lifted her good leg and then pointed to… Violet? I don’t think these Shadow beings of my friends could talk, but they could gesture well enough. I looked into her blood red eyes and saw a spark in them. “Dolly, assist… does Lena even have a codename?” It hasn’t come up, but I’ve learned a lot of names yesterday and made some friends. I should be happy to even just have Smolder and Ocellus safely back under my care. I looked to where Dolly was and she didn’t question it and was already fighting defensively at Lena’s side. “Codenames are not exactly important right now.” Violet was continuing her work as she addressed the shadows. “I’m almost done. I assume that once the portal is made, all of you will be helping with forcing Hollow into it. I’m sure we could find a place for you here, all of you are a lot like my sister and I’m sure we can be friends and find places for you to stay.” Violet glanced between me and Shadow Pom when she said that last part, she was ready to accept these shadow beings quite openly despite knowing what they were. The six shadows, even the shadows puppies, all shook their heads. They weren’t staying here, Arizona pointed to the swirling cloudy skies, then started to etch something in the dirt. A circle with wiggly lines, several figures and… “They can’t stay here.” I stated quietly with a sense of dread, knowing exactly what Shadow Arizona was trying to tell us. I lowered my head and looked away. They were making a collective choice here, one that might end with their destruction once they all did what I think they were going to do. “Your sister has the ability to handle bright light, the sun and a body. These guys… they don’t have those protections. They will have to go back to where they came from with Hollow or else they will perish once the shroud covering the city disappears… and being stuck with him when they do is a very iffy prospect. One they are apparently willing to take.” “That… is very upsetting to me on a number of levels and sensibilities. I am of course basing that on personal emotions surrounding how my adoptive sister came to be of course and knowing that they are free thinking beings doesn’t help.” Violet murmured as she continued her setup for a few more seconds, then stopped and close her eyes while rubbing at her forehead with her fingers. “Well… the preparations are complete, I just need to activate it.” “I don’t feel any better about leaving them to deal with Hollow alone either, despite them being the reason I’m this badly injured in the first place.” My attention was caught by Shadow Arizona waving her tongue at me, she then made a motion where she slapped her right hoof into her left. “It’s their choice to fight.” Shadow Pom nodded in agreement with my words and gave me a weak smile. The other shadows grouped up and looked towards Lena fighting Hollow, despite having cut up and battered Lena a little bit she was dealing quite a bit of damage to him with her magic and keeping him well at bay. “Shadows with growing heart, let none break your new start. Give them a chance no matter how small, may they survive their choice and come out standing tall. With clear minds they leave the park, I hope they survive their fates… on a lark.” As Violet spoke she grinned slightly, I could feel the magic in the air whipping up in a frenzy and energy converging. “I open a portal to those who don’t belong and are of shadowy descent, I will open in our world a small dangerous rent, hopefully it will close as soon as all required to go are sent. The hollow one brings nothing but pain, to end his shadowy plot and hopeless all-consuming dark reign, now we must send Hollow Heart back from whence he came!” The candles lit up brightly making the shadowy versions of my friends and me wince, the flames swirled and started tearing a hole in the air filled with an endless void with no stars. “Okay, now we just have to get him into it… right?” I stated with a frown, I blinked when I turned back to the shadows to see that only two of them were still there. Shadow Pom was helping Shadow Oleander, Velvet and Tianhuo limp for the portal, they sent us a grateful look and then two of them entered. Shadow Pom stayed behind and turned to see Shadow Arizona grapple Hollow Heart with her tongue and yank him towards her and the portal. Hollow Heart was caught by surprise, especially when a shadow alpaca reduced to less than half her original size leapt up and delivered a devastating flying buck to his chest that dealt damage that didn’t heal immediately. While the shadow Alpaca pressed her attack, Hollow was putting up too much of a struggle to really be pulled in and was about to slice up Shadow Arizona’s tongue. His wings swung up and snapped down only to be caught in the jaws of two shadows puppies digging their claws into his back, this was followed by the other two shadow puppies helping the shadow alpaca push him back by ramming him repeatedly. Still Hollow Heart was pushing through all this quite strong even as Shadow Arizona reeled him in inch by inch. This is when Shadow Pom joined by grabbing her tongue and pulling. “Don’t just float there, help them with whatever you have!” In response to my shout, Lena immediately blasted Hollow's face, making him stumble backwards, he was about ten feet from the portal and still resisting. Dolly slapped at him with her board pushing Hollow further back and he swung his hooves in defiance as Shadow Arizona and Shadow Pom continued to pull him closer to the portal. Shadow Paprika and the two pups kept putting on pressure Hollow with Dolly and Lena assisting them. Gizmo Duck’s rocketing fist slammed upwards into Hollow’s belly knocking him onto his hind hooves making him easier to drag ever closer. At some point Shadow Arizona backed into the portal and Shadow Pom charged forward to grapple and started dragging a furious Hollow Heart with her one good leg. Even with all the attacks landing on him, Hollow wasn’t faltering and was actually slowing down everyone’s progress to push him through the portal. He caught Shadow Paprika’s leg and hurled her through the portal, only Shadow Pom was left on this side with her puppies. Hollow still putting up a massive fight managed to get the two puppies not preoccupied with his wings through the portal, but that just left him open to a series of magical blasts barrages from Lena. “Gah, go in already!” Lena groused out as she fired a continuous beam of magic into him, he still stayed standing and was even beginning to resist it. “Bow-Whacka-Wow!” Dolly lunged forward and into Lena’s beam to ride it forward. She speared the nose of her board into Hollow’s chest with a single blindingly fast thrust, the thing that happened next surprised us all. A beam of bright energy erupted out of Hollow back and tethered him to the portal, his eyes widened in alarm as the beam of energy dragged him backwards towards the portal, Dolly continued to surge forward with constant energy pushing behind her. She pushed him the remain distance until his back was inside the portal with Shadow Pom’s head and leg barely sticking out of it. She looked to me and nodded while trying to drag Hollow the rest of Hollow’s resisting form through. The shape of the portal used to be a big oval, now it looked like… a giant keyhole? Why was it taking that shape specifically? Dolly turned her sides board ninety degrees so the wheels now pointed at the ground and light started bursting from the giant keyhole as Hollow began dissolving from the circular hole in his chest, whereas Shadow Pom gained a pink heart shaped marking on the center of her chest as she was sucked through the keyhole. Everything seemingly went sideways for a second. Dolly was falling to the ground in slow motion, her eyes slowly sliding shut from the immense amounts of pain coming from both sides of our bond and then I was blinded by the surging light. -The World- It shuddered, not even being able to understand what Dolly just managed to do purely by instinct. It wasn’t even sure how she did it in the first place and it had even been focusing entirely on her. Despite how intriguing this all was to its unbridled curiosity, it now had a healthy fear of the unknown quantities that resulted from its actions.